Snow, more snow

February in Colorado means snow. January is bitter cold, March is wet, messy snow, February is just snow. Cold and snow.

We got 9 inches two weeks ago, maybe 2 inches last weekend, and Saturday morning we were surprised to wake up to another 5.7 inches. Since the 9 inches had never melted out of the front yard (which faces north), we now have a lot of snow that will never melt. Ever.

It's good, I remind myself. This is our water for next summer. Appreciate it, do not complain about it. So I try. It helps that this weekend's snow was exactly what you want from a February snow: crisp and dry and feathery, easy to shovel. The problem was that it fell on top of the 9 inches of heavy wet snow from two weeks ago, which is now solid ice. (Actually, things aren't so bad in the backyard, since that faces south.)

I am worried about the lumps of ice in the road, near our driveway, which formed from the snow that the snowplows kicked up two weeks ago. They don't melt, they just sit there, like our own private Stonehenge or something. I think I should try to move them, but I don't really know how.

Maybe tomorrow. I've been saying that for two weeks now.

This is a four-day weekend for the kids -- Presidents Day and then an extra day for some reason, Tuesday in this case. Usually it would be Friday -- I don't know why they gave us Tuesday off this time. So, instead of looking forward to sending them off to school tomorrow, I am looking forward to two more days of having them at home, trying to get them to do their homework while I try to do my housework and other tasks. Should be a blast.

Yesterday, Saturday, I managed to read with both boys. Teen A is reading 1984 for Language Arts, and Teen B is reading Tuck Everlasting. This means that I am reading both books aloud to them, while they play video games on their Chromebooks. Today, Sunday, I read some more of 1984 to Teen A, and helped Teen B with a social studies assignment. I tried to get Teen B to let me read to him, but he refused.

I haven't driven with either boy yet this weekend. We'll try tomorrow. I keep reminding myself that it's all good, whatever we can get done is all good. Don't worry too much. They'll go to college or get jobs someday, even though it doesn't seem like that's possible. Today when Teen B and I went to Starbucks, both of his hoodies were in the wash, so we looked through the closet and found an old UC Berkeley sweatshirt of mine for him to wear. He said, "Where did you get this, Mom?" and I said "When I was a college student -- I went to Berkeley, you know!" No, he didn't know. "Is that a good school?" he asked. While I was fainting dead away from disbelief at his ignorance, he googled it and learned that it is currently considered the 4th best school in the nation and the best public school. "Yes, and I went there, and Uncle Jim went there, and Risa and Greg and Daniel and Sophie all went there," I said, listing off relatives. "And I'm probably going to go to CU," he said. In your dreams, I thought, but didn't say.

We usually eat out on Saturday night, but just before we were going to leave for the restaurant, the nausea that had been bothering me all afternoon got out of hand and I had to go into the bathroom and throw up. I had made a mushroom pasta the night before and had the leftovers for Saturday lunch and somehow it didn't agree with me. All the mushrooms came back up, looking exactly the same as when they went down. Why do I bother eating vegetables?

So I took a shower and went to bed and the kids ate frozen dinners, and we went out to eat tonight instead. We went to the Gondolier, which is a really nice restaurant in a strip mall, and now I'm wondering if I ate too much. I don't think so. There were no mushrooms involved (I studied the menu carefully and tried to avoid things that were too fatty or mushroomy or otherwise seemed like they might bother me). I had chicken piccata. I don't usually eat chicken, but it just sounded safe. We'll see.

When we got home, Teen B and I watched the first half of the movie of The Fault in Our Stars (we just finished reading the book at bedtime). I thought it was very good, at least so far. The CD from the library is glitchy, but we're managing.

This past week was an OK week, nothing special. Teen B's band concert was wonderful -- that was Tuesday. He's actually thinking about not taking band next year. I made as strong a push for staying in it as I could. It's not really for him. I just want to have concerts to go to. Having him stay in music has been the fulfillment of a dream for me. I know neither of my kids is really musical, but having Teen B kind of fake it is deeply satisfying. For me. But he's getting ready to move on. Maybe he'll do one more year.

Wednesday was Valentine's Day, but we sort of celebrated it the night before because Rocket Boy's candy had arrived and the cookies I sent him had arrived, so we opened everything and talked. That left me free to devote Wednesday night to my book group, where we finally got to discuss On Beauty, which I read a long time ago, back in mid-January. Nobody liked it -- I probably liked it the most, and I didn't like it. Next month we are going to read The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, which I am actually already reading (Rocket Boy gave it to me for Christmas). I am using it to drag myself through the biography of Woodrow Wilson -- I read a chapter of the biography and that earns me the right to read a chapter of the novel. Still, progress is slow.

This coming week, on Tuesday, I have a horrible orthodontia appointment to get my wires out, followed by a horrible dentist appointment, followed by a horrible orthodontia appointment to get the wires put back in. I hope and PRAY this is the last time I have to do this. Wednesday night is in-person conferences at the high school, assuming nothing happens to cancel them as has happened the last two times. 

And other than that it will just be a week. Another week in February. Wednesday night it's supposed to rain.